Dear Secretary Clinton,
Please step down. Withdraw from the race. Throw your considerable expertise and energy behind Elizabeth Warren. You will go down in history as a selfless humanitarian who cared more about the future of humanity than she did about her own aspirations.
The situation is dire. Even the slightest possibility of a Trump presidency (you are tied in the polls today) is too much for our fragile democracy and our even more fragile world. Our problems are legion and getting worse (we all know what they are).
You have too much baggage. And while you are appreciated by many (especially along the I-95 and I-5 corridors) for everything you have accomplished, we need a candidate who has the opportunity to bring people together. We need an end to polarization. And sadly, that is not you. If the narrative over the next three months is your emails, Benghazi, Bill's peccadilloes, the finances of the Clinton Foundation and general Republican antipathy towards you, then we will be unable to talk about solutions for climate change, greed, violence, worldwide social unrest and the need for national and international collaboration and problem solving.
I have family and friends in the hinterlands. Whether it is justified or not they do not trust you and are prepared to "sit out" the election. These are people who voted for Obama twice. Despite my pleas to them about the potentially negative and profound repercussions of Trump's pathological narcissism for all of us, they are adamant about not supporting you.
I am old enough to remember when national political conventions were cauldrons of discussion and debate, not scripted media events. As an 18 year old in 1968 I was sitting behind the dais, not 20 feet away from Mayor Daley, when he leapt to his feet in anger and screamed an anti-semitic slur at Abraham Ribicoff. That single event catalyzed my becoming active in the anti-war movement. From that same convention, I remember the healthy arguments that happened on the convention floor and in meeting rooms. You have the power to generate that kind of energy again. You have the power to make the convention a place of healthy discourse and in so doing energize people who care. Step down. Turn the convention into democracy in action.
I am begging you. Model selflessness and wisdom. The world and the United States are at an ecological and political tipping point. Please, for the Love of God, do the right thing and let go.
Respectfully and with great admiration,
Alexandra Scott